The turn of the season brings a festival spirit to the Ozarks, and the Springfield-Greene County Park Board is hosting several festivals marking the arrival of fall.

The festival season kicks off Friday night with the Japanese Fall Festival, a three-day celebration of Japanese culture at Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, in Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park. Friday night’s opening ceremony includes nearly 800 kindergarten through fifth-grade student ambassadors, representing every Springfield public elementary school, as well as taiko drumming, folk dancing and an official welcome to visitors from Springfield’s Sister City, Isesaki, Japan. The ceremony is followed by a candlelight stroll through the garden.

This year’s festival marks two milestones: It’s the 20th annual Japanese Fall Festival and the 30th anniversary of the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Both are closely linked to the Springfield Sister Cities Association, which has an ongoing sister-city relationship with both Isesaki and Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico.

Admission to the Japanese Fall Festival is $7 for adults, $3 for kids 12 and under. For more information, visit peacethroughpeople.org

Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park hosts another festival Sept. 19-20: the annual 1860’s Lifestyle Expo at Gray-Campbell Farmstead. Step back in time in the oldest house in Springfield, with old-timey music, apple cider pressing, a blacksmith forge, leather crafting, wool spinning and other activities illustrating life on the Ozarks frontier. Tour the cabin, log kitchen, two-crib barn and the one-room Liberty School. Sunday includes a homemade two-crust apple pie contest, with open entries at 2:15 p.m. and judging at 3.

Sept. 19-20 is also opening weekend for Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park’s annual Harvest Fest, a six-weekend celebration of all things autumn. This year’s event includes the traditional corn maze and pumpkin patch, with hayrides, the corn cannon and the cow train. (“Cows” are made of 50-gallon barrels, turned on their sides, with seat inside and wheels below, pulled behind a tractor. You have to see it!) Starting in October, the Haunted Trail of Terror opens on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as the new Halloween Fun Field, a less-scary Halloween experience for young children.

Admission to Harvest Fest is free, but there are fees for the above activities, and pumpkins are sold by weight. The event is Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sundays, noon-6 p.m., Sept. 19-20 through Oct. 24-25.